Representative Gabriel Richard

Gabriel Richard (rish-ARD; October 15, 1767 – September 13, 1832) was a French Roman Catholic Sulpician priest, educator, and civic leader who became one of the most influential pioneer figures in early Michigan and the Old Northwest. A missionary pastor of Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit, he ministered not only to French Catholic settlers but also to Protestants and Native Americans in Southeast Michigan. He played a central role in the rebuilding and civic planning of Detroit after the fire of 1805, helped found the institution that became the University of Michigan, and later served as a nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Michigan Territory. He is currently under consideration for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.

Richard was born in La Ville de Saintes, in the province of Saintonge, France, on October 15, 1767. He received his early education in France and pursued ecclesiastical studies at the Seminary of Angers, where he came under the influence of the Society of Saint-Sulpice, a community dedicated to the formation of clergy and to education. He was ordained a Sulpician priest in 1790. During the French Revolution, when the revolutionary government required clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the secular French Republic, Richard refused to take the oath. In the face of increasing persecution of non-juring clergy, he fled France and emigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Baltimore, Maryland, a principal center of Catholic life in the new republic. There he came under the authority of Bishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States, who later assigned him to missionary work in the Northwest Territory.

In 1798, Bishop Carroll sent Richard to the far-flung frontier community of Detroit, then part of the Northwest Territory. Richard arrived there on the Feast of Corpus Christi, June 7, 1798, to serve as assistant pastor at the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit (Sainte Anne’s Church), under the pastor, Father Michael Levadoux. At that time, many residents of Detroit, both Catholic and Protestant, were of French ethnicity, and Richard quickly gained a reputation for zeal and charity that earned him the affectionate title “Le Bon Père” (the good father) among people of all faiths. From his base in Detroit, he traveled widely to distant communities to minister to scattered Catholic populations. South of Detroit, he visited Catholics along Maumee Bay and the Raisin, Huron, Ecorse, and Rouge rivers; to the north, he served those living along the St. Clair and Black rivers, and he also visited communities along Anchor Bay, Swan Creek, L’Anse Creuse Bay on Lake St. Clair, and the Clinton River. In 1799, he established a log chapel called St. Peter’s of Mt. Clemens along the Clinton River, creating what became the third-oldest parish in Michigan. That same year he traveled north to visit the Odawa at L’Arbre Croche. Soon afterward, a devastating smallpox epidemic swept through the Great Lakes region, killing more than half the residents of the L’Arbre Croche settlement. Some Odawa interpreted the deaths as retribution, either because they believed Richard’s religion was evil or that the Great Spirit was angered by the possibility of their accepting Catholicism, complicating his missionary efforts among them.

Richard’s pastoral responsibilities in Detroit expanded rapidly. In 1801, Bishop Pierre Denaut of Quebec visited Detroit and administered the sacrament of Confirmation to 536 parishioners at Sainte Anne’s, all but ten of whom were of French heritage, reflecting the deep roots of French Catholic culture in the region. In 1802, Richard became rector and pastor of Sainte Anne’s Church. He preached sermons on Sundays for his parishioners and, in time, began providing regular sermons and religious instruction for Protestants and Native Americans as well. With his assistant pastor, Father Jean Dilhet, he organized separate schools for girls and boys beginning in 1804, oversaw a local seminary, and supervised French Christian schools throughout the region. He commenced new schools for boys and girls, established a library for the church, and trained four local people to be teachers. He also provided education to Native Americans in the area. A pioneer in vocational training in Michigan, Richard arranged for looms to be delivered and taught members of the community to weave, combining religious, academic, and practical instruction in his educational work.

On June 11, 1805, a catastrophic fire leveled nearly the entire town of Detroit, including Sainte Anne’s Church, destroying homes, livestock, and grain stores and plunging the community into crisis. In response, Richard organized shipments of food aid from neighboring ribbon farms on both sides of the Detroit River to alleviate the resulting food shortage. He helped secure funding from Washington, D.C., and, working with territorial leaders, participated in creating a new city plan for Detroit’s streets, including the layout of Jefferson and Michigan Avenues. In the aftermath of the fire, he composed the Latin motto that would become emblematic of the city’s resilience: “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus” (“We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes”), which remains inscribed on the official seal of the City of Detroit. On October 18, 1808, he addressed a formal memorial to the territorial governor and judges proposing the establishment of an “institution for higher learning” and suggesting that a lottery might support the academies he directed. In 1817, at the instigation of Richard and Judge Augustus B. Woodward, and with the support of President Thomas Jefferson, the territorial government enacted “An Act to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania” within the Territory of Michigan. Richard became the founding vice president of this institution—known today as the University of Michigan—and later served on its board of trustees. His influence was further recognized in the Treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817, when Catholic members of the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes requested that six sections of land be reserved for the rector of St. Ann’s Church for religious purposes and for the “college at Detroit,” to support the education of their children.

Beyond his pastoral and educational work, Richard contributed significantly to the intellectual and cultural life of early Detroit. He acquired the first printing press in the city and, in 1809, began publishing a French-language periodical entitled Essais du Michigan, as well as an English-language paper, The Michigan Essay, or Impartial Observer. With this press he printed and reprinted books, including, by tradition, The Child’s Spelling Book. His personal library contained about 240 volumes spanning history, literature, theology, philosophy, law, and science, and included a copy of the Gospel of St. John printed in both Mohawk and English, reflecting his interest in Native American languages and evangelization. He continued to minister among Indigenous peoples throughout the region and was generally admired by them for his constancy and courage.

During the War of 1812, Richard’s loyalty to the United States was tested when British forces captured Detroit. Ordered to swear an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, he refused, declaring, “I have taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and I cannot take another. Do with me as you please.” For this refusal he was imprisoned by the British. His confinement ended only after the Shawnee chief Tecumseh—despite his own hostility toward the Americans—refused to continue fighting for the British while Richard remained in prison. Richard was released, and the war concluded in 1815 with American control of the region reaffirmed. His steadfastness during the conflict further enhanced his standing among both settlers and Native Americans.

Richard entered national public life when he was elected as a nonvoting delegate of the Michigan Territory to the U.S. House of Representatives for the 18th Congress. Serving from March 4, 1823, to March 3, 1825, he became the first Roman Catholic priest ever elected to the House of Representatives. In Congress, he worked to advance the interests of the territory, most notably securing the first federal appropriation for the Territorial Road across Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. This route, later developed as Michigan Avenue, became a major thoroughfare connecting Detroit with Chicago and played a significant role in the region’s economic development. Richard was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1824 to the Nineteenth Congress, but he remained an influential civic and religious leader in Michigan.

On September 13, 1832, during a cholera epidemic that swept through Detroit, Richard contracted the disease while caring for the sick and dying and succumbed to the illness. He died in Detroit and was buried in a crypt in the chapel of Sainte Anne’s. His remains were later moved to the Fr. Gabriel Richard Chapel within Sainte Anne Church, where his coffin is on full display. His library, long preserved by the Sacred Heart Seminary beginning in 1925, was presented to the University of Michigan in 1951, further cementing his connection to the institution he helped found. In 1937, The Michigan Catholic described his “remarkable career” as having made him “one of the outstanding pioneer priests of America,” noting that for three decades “the history of the Catholic Church in Michigan…was practically identified with the life and labors of this tall, gaunt priest and citizen who literally wore himself out in the service of his community.”

Richard’s memory is honored in numerous ways throughout Michigan. A bronze bust by sculptor Frank Varga marks his tomb within Sainte Anne Church, and a State of Michigan Historical Marker stands outside the church in Detroit commemorating his life. Statues of Richard adorn the exterior of Detroit City Hall, Mullen Park at Wayne State University, and Gabriel Richard Park at East Jefferson and East Grand Boulevard. Another state historical marker in Jonesville, Michigan, recalls his role in securing federal funds for the Sauk Trail, also known as the Territorial Road. His Latin motto, “Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus,” remains the official motto of the City of Detroit. At least four schools in the Detroit area bear his name: Gabriel Richard Catholic High School in Riverview, Father Gabriel Richard High School in Ann Arbor, Gabriel Richard Elementary School in Detroit, and Père Gabriel Richard Elementary School in Grosse Pointe Farms. On September 20, 2020, the Fr. Gabriel Richard Guild was formed as one of the first formal steps toward his possible canonization. In announcing the guild, Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron praised Richard as “a zealous pastor whose missionary heart guided all that he did,” and the guild was charged with determining whether there is sufficient “heroic virtue or holiness worth promoting” to advance his cause for sainthood before the archbishop and the bishops of Michigan.